India’s domestic air passenger traffic jumped by 24.27% to 74.76 Lakhs during February 2016

Indian aviation industry is experiencing robust growth of air passenger traffic domestically. In the month of February 2016, number of air passengers increased by 24.27% year on year to 74.76 Lakhs. While total number of passengers carried during 2016 were up by 23.41% y-o-y to 151.31 Lakhs. Lower aviation fuel prices resulting into cheaper air fares coupled with expanding air connectivity is driving passenger traffic growth in India. The decision by the government to revive 160 idle airports in smaller cities in coming years by starting passenger air service in near future could act as next growth driver for the industry.

India’s largest Low Cost Airline (LCC), Indigo continues to dominate with 36.8% market share. Indigo carried 27.54 Lakhs passengers during February 2016. While Jet Airways (Jet +Jet Lite) 15.79 Lakhs passenger to capture 21.1% share. State owned carrier Air India is at third place with 15.4% share carrying 11.54 Lakh air travelers. Top 5 airlines accounts for 94.4% of total market share in Indian aviation sector.

In terms of Passenger Load Factor (PLF), another LCC SpiceJet leads with 92.3% followed by Air Costa (87.1%), GoAir (86.4%), Indigo (86.0%) and Air Asia (85.5%). Efficient route management coupled with attractive fares are helping aviation industry to maintain healthy PLF.

On Time Performance (OTP) is one of important factor for passengers deciding about which airline to fly. Vistara is the most punctual with 90.7% OTP followed by Indigo (82.9%) and Jet Airways (82.2%). About 2/3^rd delays are Reactionary in nature during February 2016.

Cancellation rates during February 2016 stood at 0.7% which is reasonably low. All the major airlines fared well while Air Asia had zero cancellations.

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Source: DGCA